Archive | July, 2011

Four TIP Fellows attended Yale’s 2011 National Seminars

15 Jul

Four Philadelphia Institute teachers were among more than 75 teachers from 14 locations around the country, selected to participate in the National Seminars presented by the Yale National Initiative in 2011. This program, which is the original template for teachers institute programs across the nation, brings together teachers for a two week intensive academic experience at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The daily academic seminars are led by renowned Yale professors, and lead to the creation of finely researched curriculum documents for use in classrooms in the home school districts of the participants.

The Yale program is open to TIP teachers who serve in Institute leadership positions. The teachers, schools and their respective seminars were:

  • Patricia Mitchell-Keita-Doe from Tilden Middle School in The Idea of America
  • Deborah Smithey from Philadelphia Military Academy at Leeds in Organs and Artificial Organs
  • Troy Holiday from Wagner Middle School in Great Ideas of Primary Mathematics
  • Stacia Parker from Parkway West High School in The Art of Reading People: Character, Expression, Interpretation

The demanding but highly rewarding experience allowed the Teacher Fellows to work on significant individual subject research, reinforced by collaborative mutual support. Many educator networks and friendships were forged during the program, crossing grade level, school, district, and state lines. These links will endure into the upcoming school year, to the general benefit of teachers, students, and schools.

The final versions of curriculum units were submitted to the Yale Initiative in mid-August. Completed curriculum units from the national seminars are available for reference or viewing at the Yale National Initiative website: http://teachers.yale.edu/units/

Other communities participating in the National Seminars included the Teachers Institutes in New Haven, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, and New Castle County, DE. Additionally, there were teacher participants from areas without institutes including: Chicago; Richmond, VA; DeKalb County, GA; the San Francisco Bay area, CA; Tulsa, OK; and the Dine (Navaho) Nation, AZ.